Raffi

Raffi Cavoukian is an Egyptian-born Canadian singer-songwriter, and life-long children's entertainer with a string of gold and platinum-selling recordings in North America. These include his classic “Baby Beluga” song with its beloved melody and lyrics. His pioneering commitment to honouring his young fans played a role in changing the way we view children's music. Raffi founded his own record label called Troubadour, and has dedicated himself to "rescuing" children's recordings from sub-par quality. He was awarded the Fred Rogers Integrity Award in 2006.

"The young child, I regard as a genius."

He holds a firm belief that children's screen exposure should be limited, and they should never be directly marketed to under any circumstances. Raffi, whose music blends folk, reggae, ragtime, gospel, jazz, country, and calypso influences, has remained faithful to his non-commercial approach. As a result, during his thirty-year career as a children's music superstar, he's refused all offers for commercial shows and endorsements — even turning down a film adaptation of "Baby Beluga", if it would include merchandising or direct marketing. Raffi has refused to play in theaters larger than 3,000 seats with ticket prices no more than $8.50.

Raffi is also a social activist who has struggled for non-violence and against war, protection of the environment, and economic equality. He's aimed his messages at the generation who grew up with his children's music, which he's called "Beluga Grads", with whom he hopes he can strike a special chord. In 2004 he published this prescription for our our respect for our children should inform our political decision-making.

"I’m not interested in maximizing capital, I’m interested in a society that maximizes the goodwill and the resiliency of its children."